Stand Off
by Tonks32
Summary: Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard caught site of his Ashley's by the color battle tarnished armor trying to get a good position closer to Miranda's sister and father. The take down of Henry Lawson doesn't go as planned. M!Shep/Ash


Shepard shifted to shield Miranda while keeping his gun her father. The biotic was injured for her encounter with the horrors Henry Lawson had been experimenting on trying to get to her sister that she was in no shape to fight. Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard caught site of his Ashley's by the color battle tarnished armor trying to get a good position closer to Miranda's sister and father. Shepard had no clue where EDI and Liara were.

"Look all I want is Oriana." And his head on a spike, but Shepard wasn't going to tell him that just yet. There was no way after all he saw in the man's facility that the monster was going to wall free. Shepard just had to make the man believe it. A talent people said he had. "Let her go and I'll let you walk out of here."

Sweating, Henry readjusted his grip on the pistol he held to his youngest daughter's head. "How do I know you'll keep your word?"

"Well you don't." Shepard pointed out with a slight curve of his lip, "but you're up against three guns and your powerful biotic daughter, who really, really hate you. So you options at this point are kind of limited. Plus if you touch a hair on Oriana's head you will defiantly be killed in some really appalling way. Given what I've seen of your operation here, I think I'm being more than fair. So let her go and you walk away. Hurt her and well…" He trailed off ominously

Henry held the soldier's gaze for long moment, "fine. Here." He shoved his daughter with enough force forward that she stumbled and had to catch herself on the table. "I kept my end of the bargain, Shepard. I expect you to keep your deal or are the stories of Ethan the ruthless true?"

"No deal!" Miranda growled as her biotics flared around her.

Everything happened so fast that Shepard couldn't even react. Before Miranda could pick up her father, the man turned his gun on Oriana and fired. In that split second, Ashley dove between the bullet and unarmed woman. To his horror it ripped right through her shields. Ashley crumbled on top of Oriana still trying to shield her. The glass pane shattered as Henry flew through it and down three stories.

"Williams." Vaulting over the table, Shepard threw his gun over his shoulder before crashing to his knees at her side. Oriana already had the injured woman's head cradled on her lap. Liara was already rushing across the room and pulling out Medi-gel.

Coming down from her surge of anger and fear, Miranda let the world come back into focus and her heart sank straight to her stomach.

"Armor piercing rounds." Oriana worked to apply pressure with her hands to the blood pouring from the soldier's neck.

"We need to get her helmet off, carefully." Liara instructed.

Shepard tried to unlatch it and cursed. His damn gauntlets were too thick to grasp the buckles. Yanking them off, he tried again as fast as he could. Blood was starting to pool beneath Ashley's head. "Oh god." His stomach almost turned. The bullet had ripped through the shell of the armor and left a ragged gaping wound to the left of Ashley's neck.

Miranda squeezed in between Shepard and her sister demanding medi-gel. Taking the canister from the Asari, she began to lather it along the blood gushing wound trying to figure out if an artery had been hit. The contact jolted Ashley back to the world of the consciousness. "Easy Williams. Keep her from moving." She instructed to Liara and her sister. The more she moved the less the medi-gel worked.

Ashley's eyes were wide with panic and fear. They only grew wider when she opened her mouth to speak and nothing came out."

"Call back to Chakwas and get her ready." Miranda applied another layer of medi-gel, "ASAP!"

"EDI get a medical team down here stat." Liara related over the comm the situation before turning to the pale Shepard. "Talk to her. She's terrified Ethan you need to calm her down."

Shepard swallowed the lump in his throat and took her limp hand in his. Needing physically contact, he hastily removed it. The color was draining from her face just as fast as the blood was from her body. "hey." He rubbed her hands between his to warm it. "Ash."

Her panicked gaze flickered wildly from faces to the bloody hands trying to fix her."

"Hey, Hey LC look at me." He calmly instructed and caught her gaze. He gave her the best smile he could muster, "that's it. Just keep your eyes on me, okay."

'Hurts' she mouthed with a tear slipping down her cheek.

"I know, baby." Shepard wanted to touch her face, but the three women were working hard to stop the bleeding. There was medical jargon being thrown around that he didn't really understand. All that he knew was that it was bad. "Just hand on there, okay. Doc is going to be here any second to fix you up."

"She's losing too much blood, Shepard." Miranda whispered. "Her pulse is getting weaker."

"God damn it Ash you hang on." His booming voice that could command many cracked with emotions. "Do you hear me? That's an order."

The corner of Ashley's mouth twitched into what was supposed to be a smile only to turn into a grimace. She wanted to comply with that order, she really did, but there was a high chance that she wouldn't be able to. It took great restraint not to cry out in frustration. This wasn't how it was suppose to go. They were suppose to ride into the gates of hell together to send the Reapers back to hole they climbed out of. She had pictured a life for them after they won. God she even had their first child's name picked out and everything. Why did it have to go like this? They were so close to the end.

"Move Ethan!" Chakwas raced through the room with Vega and Garrus hot on her heels carrying in a stretcher.

It took the very fit marine wrapping his arm around the Commander's torso to get Shepard away from Ashley. Shepard watched helplessly as the Doc, Miranda, and Liara work on the woman he loved. Hands became bloodied and bandage after bandage became soiled in attempts to stop the bleeding."

"Remove her chest plate." Chakwas instructed while pulling out the needed supplies to start an IV. "Her body needs fluids and blood once we get her on board the Normandy. She tried to remember if they had the stock of blood she needed to help the LC. They hadn't had a chance to restock on supplies in the last few weeks and they had seen a lot of combat in that time.

Miranda could see the thoughts clear as day on the doctor's face. "What is her blood type?"

"B positive."

"I have B Positive." Both sisters spoke together.

"Good. I can't move her until I have her stabilized so I'm going to need to start a transfusion. I am going to have to talk someone through how to do this because I have to stop the bleeding." Chakwas took a moment to look at the faces in the room, "Liara do you think you might be able to handle this?"

Doesn't matter if she wasn't Liara thought as she nodded and started taking out the supplies the doctor instructed her to take out. She was willing to do whatever it took to save the woman's life. IF they lost Ashley then they were going to lose Shepard.

0o0o00o0o0o0o0o

Miranda looked through the window into the med bay to check on Shepard. It had taken a lot of work and blood, but the doc was able to not only stabilize but save Ashley. She was recovering in the med bay with Shepard keeping a vigil at her bedside. He was currently sitting in a chair with his brow resting against his clasped bloody hands almost as if he was praying. At least Garrus was able to convince the Commander to put up his gear though having him clean up was out of the question. Miranda wondered who brought him the sweats that he was currently wearing.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" Oriana asked joining her sister outside the med bay window. "You gave a lot of blood."

"So did you." Miranda checked to check the color of Oriana's face. She had instructed that Oriana couldn't leave her quarters until it returned. "You feeling okay?"

"Much better knowing now that bastard won't bother us anymore." Oriana could see that Miranda felt that same relief though it was drowned out by the guilt on her face. "Why aren't you in there?"

Miranda turned from the window and would have started back to the elevator if her sister hadn't stopped her. "I can't."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't think." Miranda softly confessed, "I didn't think about what my actions would do. All I could think about was you and the fact if we would never be free of him if we let him go."

Oriana touched Miranda's arm to try to reassure her, "It all happened so quickly. There wasn't much room for thinking. From what you've told me of the Lieutenant Commander is that she's one of those that does whatever it takes to protect those that can't. Don't you think that I feel guilty that she took a bullet meant for me?"

Miranda hadn't thought about it to be honest. She had been so caught up in herself that she didn't think about how Oriana was handling all of this. First she was taken by their madman of a father and then had to watch as a stronger took a bullet for her. "It wasn't your fault."

"And it wasn't yours either, Miri." Oriana gave her sister a gentle push, "go check on him."

Taking a breath to bolster her courage, Miranda followed Oriana's orders and walked into the med bay. The hissing of the door caused Shepard to jolt out of trance and jolt to his feet. He turned, locked his blood shot gaze on her, and started towards her. He lurched forward and she braced herself. It took her a few moments for Miranda to realize that he wasn't strangling the breath out of her, but hugging it out of her. "Ummm…" Well this wasn't the reaction that she was expecting. Not sure what to do, Miranda awkwardly patted the Commander's back.

"Thank you." Gripping her by the shoulder, Shepard drew away with his eyes filled with tears. "Thank you, Miranda."

"You're thanking me?" She asked astounded looking up at him to make sure she heard him right. "I am the reason she got hurt in the first place."

"You saved her." Was all Shepard said. "Thank you."

"I-I…" All those feelings that she buried for Shepard tried to rise to the surface, but she shoved them back down. It had been very clear from the moment Miranda saw Shepard look at Ashley on Horizon that his heart was already spoken for. She hoped that one day she would find a man who loved her as fierce as Ethan Shepard loved Ashley Williams. "You're welcome Ethan. I'll leave you-…"

Shepard stopped her, "will you sit with me for a while?"

"Of course."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

A few hours later, Shepard was nodding up sitting in the chair at Ashley's bedside. The crew had come in gone, each taking a turn sitting with him as he waited for Ashley to wake up. A new sound coming from the machines monitoring her vitals cause the Commander to snap awake. Panicked he looked at the screen and then at the injured woman when he realized he had no clue how to read the damn thing. To his surprise the Lieutenant Commander was staring at him. "Ash!" He reached for her hand, "no don't try to talk. Doc says your wound needs a few days to heal before you can talk."

Ashley nodded in understanding and tapped her fingers against his.

He realized after a moment of confusion that she was using Morse code to communicate with him. "Oriana is safe."

_Good. _She tapped struggling to keep her eyes open.

Shepard brushed a lose strand of hair from her pale face, "Doc says you're going to be okay. Just a few days of bed rest and you'll be right as rain."

Ashley lifted her lip and moved her finger. _Followed your orders, Skipper._

"That you did, LC." He smiled, "I love you, Ash."

_Love you._

Shepard kept her hand grasp in his as she slipped back under again. Content that things were once again right, well as they could be anyways, in the galaxy, he laid his head on the bed and followed her into sleep.


End file.
